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Five children kidnapped by FARC in southeast Colombia

Xinhua, June 19, 2015 Adjust font size:

Five girls aged between eight and 13 were kidnapped in southeast Colombia by guerrilla movement Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), police reported Thursday.

After a week of investigation, police discovered the children had been recruited by a commission belonging to the Urias Cuellar First Front Company which is part of FARC, said Colonel Luis Zuleta, commander of Vaupes Police Department in the Amazonas region, to local media.

The police official said the children's families did not report their missing straight away because of threats from the group who had previously agreed to stop recruiting minors.

"There wasn't a direct collaboration. However, the people are in a state of powerlessness and they are subject to the armed group," said Zuleta.

He added that the authorities were suspicious of the first version of how the girls disappeared, which claimed the girls disappeared after an accident on a nearby river while they were on their way home from school.

A Security Council will convene on Thursday in Vaupes' capital city of Mitu according to Zuleta.

The police will present its hypothesis before local and national authorities along with other cases of forced recruitment reported throughout the year. Enditem